Supposedly it was originally greenlit as an anthology series, though it’s unclear if they’ll adapt more Simmons’ novels or just do stories similar to the Terror. There’s lots of historical stuff for them to play with in regards to lost explorers/doomed expeditions.
A-fricken-men to this. They all look the same and sound the same to me. I like the drama of it, but any time something happens to a specific person I can’t tell what it’s supposed to mean to me as a viewer.
Completely agree with all the praise, although I have to admit I nearly gave up on the series after the first 2-3 episodes because the dialogue is so hard to understand. I switched from DVR-ing to watching on AMC with subtitles enabled and that made all the difference. Also agree that Jared Harris is incredible in this role, and am rather sad that it seems it must end with the next (last) episode. I own the book, but haven’t read it yet. It is next on my reading list, though, and I only hope watching the show hasn’t ruined the book experience.
One episode to go. What does everyone think of Tuunbaq visually? Having read the book you go by description and create the creature in your mind. I feel like it was / has been a mistake to have shown as much of the creature as they have. For a couple of reasons; the least of which is I don’t think the CGI team did a very good job. Surprising as the rest of the show is so visually stunning. But mostly as I would have preferred to have been teased more, up to and including not ever showing it on screen.
Unrelated, and I can’t remember how I felt about this aspect after reading the book, but I feel like the series has not devoted enough time into the importance of Lady Silence, the totem, shamanism, etc. Whenever a scene tries to bring up that side of the story it feels out of place and jarring. There has not been much continuity with that storyline.
Honestly, I wish they’d just dropped that whole part of the story altogether.
I agree. I hated to see that introduced in the book. The book is well worth reading for the description of the horrendous conditions the seamen suffered on the ship. They had to be desperate to take such a job. A better book about an ill fated Arctic expedition is In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides, which is non fiction with many journals and some men surviving to tell the story.
There’s rumors of a Season 2, if you can believe the internets.
IMO the right time to finally ‘see’ (the) Tunbaaq in all it’s glory is at that final, boss battle. Even if the description from the books was essentially put a humanoid face on an oversized polar bear I want to find whoever wrote that into the miniseries script and kick them in the crotch. Uninspiring.
The ‘last supper’ scene if you will however, wow! The scenes with what remained of the doctor on the cutting board are going to haunt me. Visceral.
Final thought: What exactly was that supposed to be? The doctor’s plan of coating his skin with some sort of poison. I assumed he was trying to end all of the cannibals. They all seemed to survive for a few hours anyway. We saw a few start to be debiliated and vomiting. Then Tunbaaq roars in and starts devouring the men and it dies very quickly… did it choke to death or are we supposed to believe that the poison that the men ingested which did NOT kill any of them quickly is what is killing Tunbaaq?
Final final thought… what gave Hickey the idea to cut out his own tongue?
I’ve skipped to the end here, I don’t want spoilers. Is this series true to the history, well acted and well shot? Is the script compelling?
Thanks All, asking before I buy and binge.
Yes and no–it sticks very close to history in general (so far as I understand), but makes a few very deliberate divergences. Whether for better or for worse…
Yes and yes.
And another yes.
Thanks for the response. I should have added, “other than obviously fictionalizing what happened after the expedition was ‘never heard from’”? Is it a Horror genre?
I’ll blur this out because I’m not sure how better to dance around it: it contains an element that may be considered supernatural.
Deblurred, that’s cool, I’m in. Thanks!
I wanted to say thanks again, @anonymgeist Jared Harris and Ciarán Hinds, are phenomenal. I am hooked.
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As good as they are, I think Adam Nagaitis (Mr. Hickey) was the standout of the series for me.
He’s fantastic, as is Tobias Menzies, who I always forget is fantastic (Rome, Outlander-which my wife digs and I don’t…but he’s good).
Just watched episode 10 last night.
Mr. Goodsir did a couple of things - he coated himself with some sort of poison, except for his feet (which is why he told Crozier to eat his soles only). He also ingested some sort of poison. But then he cut his wrists to so the internal poison wouldn’t be obvious.
As for what happened in the final battle, I think what did Tunbaaq in was a combination of all the wounds suffered throughout the series, plus eating the poisoned sailors, plus (I read somewhere else) he sort of choked on the chain Mr. Hickey had. To have all those factors combine into killing him right then seems a bit… convenient, but I am loath to say it’s not “realistic.” That timing certainly fits the narrative of the story.
As to how Mr. Hickey got the idea to do the tongue cutting, I wondered that myself. The only way to have gleaned that would have been to see Lady Silence do it IMHO, and that idea doesn’t fly. I think that’s one of those loose ends that we’ll just have to live with.
I enjoyed this series. The biggest negative was the terrible CGI. My wife looked up randomly during the big boss battle and the only thing she said was “wow, that’s terrible CGI.” It was a bit disappointing.
With the ending as presented, it seems clear to me there’s no way to continue the story, so don’t think we’ll see a Season 2!
Just finished watching the last episode, and overall was pleased. I’d definitely recommend the series, but as others have said, I believe the creature’s role was a little awkward. As I’ve said before, I will be reading the book shortly, and am very much looking forward to reading how the “monster” is introduced and fleshed out. The show seemed to indicate that it was in some way “magical”, but in the end, it was not. In the show, it seemed far too convenient that it appeared at the most appropriate plot-points, and I can only hope that is just done for dramatic effect. As to the look of it, …meh… can’t say I loved or hated it. Just, meh.
So did you not read my previous reply? It was pitched as anthology series, where each season would be its own story like American Horror Story (though I don’t think we are going to see recurring cast unfortunately)
Sure I read it but I didn’t remember it!
It might work as an anthology. Pretty sure there won’t be any cast overlap, which is fine.